Svetlana Cojocaru * Romanian Lexicon: Tools, Implementation, Usage



4. Romanian spelling checker for MS~Word~6.0: an example of the application of RomPW

MS Word 6.0 includes Word Basic (a specialised subset of Visual Basic) which is used as the MS Word macro-programming language. It permits to program applications integrated into MS Word. Using Word Basic we implemented a scanner which reads words from a selected part of text in the opened window and then calls the word checking function from the Romanian Spelling Pack.

The checking function takes as a parameter a string (the word to check). This word is searched in the vocabulary. The function returns a string starting with the result code and may contain a suggestion to replace the word. If the word was not found into the vocabulary, the checking function described above calls the dialogue.

In the case of the vocabulary extension, there is a possibility to inflect the word and to include it with all its flexions.

A special problem in scanning the Romanian text is that of words with hyphens, when a particle is appended to a word. Some of such particles can appear as separate words, some of them can appear only in this situation. Hyphens are also used to make compound words. To check such cases the scanner uses a forward preview and, finding the hyphen, it appends the next word to the current one. This combination is transferred to the checking function which analyses these situations.

The advantage of the used technique of the spelling checker integration into the word processor is that the specialised library can process more complicated situations of the specific language. We had seen it on the example of hyphen processing in Romanian words. Another example is our suggestion algorithm which uses information specific for the Romanian language and can find 2-3 errors. Besides, it may add to the user's vocabulary all the flections of a word.

5. Conclusions

The Romanian Spelling Pack is a resource added to Windows and can be used in any application through the corresponding interface.

Acknowledgements.The Romanian Spelling Pack for Windows RomPW has been developed by C.Bajireanu, E.Boian, C.Ciubotaru, A.Colesnicov, V.Demidov, L.Malahova, T.Verlan. The author thanks them for fruitful work and participation in the preparation of this article.

References

  1. S. COJOCARU, M. EVSTUNIN, V. UFNAROVSKI, Detecting and correcting spelling errors for the Romanian language, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 1, No. 1(1), 1993.

  2. S. COJOCARU, M. EVSTUNIN, V. UFNAROVSKI, Romanian spelling-checker, Studies in Informatics and Control, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1994.

  3. E. BOIAN, A. DANILCHENCO, L. TOPAL, The automation of speech parts inflexion process, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 1, No. 2(2), 1993.

  4. A. LOMBARD, C. GADEI, Dictionnaire morphologique de la langue roumaine. [The morphological Romanian language dictionary], Bucureti, 1981 (in French).

  5. E. BOIAN, A. DANILCHENCO, L. TOPAL, Automation of word-forming process in the Romanian language, Studies in Informatics and Control, Vol. 3, No.1, March 1994.

  6. E. BOIAN, S. COJOCARU, The inflexion regularities for the Romanian language, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 4, No. 1(10), 1996.

  7. E. BOIAN, S. COJOCARU, L. MALAHOVA, Some tools to implement linguistics applications oriented to the Romanian language, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 4, No. 2(11), 1996.

  8. V. DEMIDOVA, T. VERLAN, An approach to the word division into syllables for Romanian language, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 4, No. 1(10), 1996.

  9. A. COLESNICOV, The Romanian spelling checker ROMSP: the project overview, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, Vol. 3, No. 1(7), 1995.


82

Previous Index Next